Comments on: Required Movies for American Japan Watchers

By: anonymous email

anonymous email — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 05:22:42 +0000

Dont forget Abe Sada. My first Japanese movie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sada_Abe

By: The Marmot’s Hole » Blog Archive » DISCUSSION: Required films for Korea watchers?

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 06:03:14 +0000

[...] A couple of weeks ago, Adamu of Mutant Frog penned a post on recommended films on Japan. It got me thinking—if I had to recommend films on Korea, which films would they be? [...]

By: adamu

adamu — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 21:19:09 +0000

Reminds me: curry + udon = crazy delicious

By: Claytonain

Claytonain — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 18:01:08 +0000

Tampopo was indeed good. It so psyched me in fact that the first thing I ever really said in Japan was, “Do you have ramen?!” I realized quite quickly I was at a curry shop.

By: Adamu

Adamu — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 03:19:52 +0000

Haha, man you made me think about all that gibberish-Japanese Connery was screaming in the beginning of that movie… and then he’s like “I had to show him he was my kohai” or some shit. Makes him sound like a fucking dog trainer.

By: Gaijin Biker

Gaijin Biker — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 03:15:00 +0000

I submit that Rising Sun, with Sean Connery as a Japan expert, is the worst movie ever made about Japan.

By: Adamu

Adamu — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 03:15:49 +0000

Good choices, I think. Tampopo was pretty good. But did these recommendations you list actually change your perspectives on Japan or just reinforce it or have little effect at all? Some of why I like the about 7 movies is because they marked or sparked something of a development in my view of Japan.

By: moorethanthis

moorethanthis — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 01:29:15 +0000

I really enjoyed Yoji Yamada’s The Twilight Samurai. It tells the story of a low-ranking samurai in an average clan, trying to get by and bring up his daughter after the death of his wife. The parallels between his self-denying existence and the present-day salaryman are made very explicitly, and when samurai ideals of honour and sacrifice make an appearance, they’re presented without idealising them. One of the better views of the loneliness of the crowd. [Warning: the ending is a bit of a downer.]

By: Mutantfrog

Mutantfrog — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 00:54:43 +0000

Tampopo is a great movie. Of course, so is The Seven Samurai, and the semi-remake, The Magnificent Seven, which was a western, is pretty amusing too. For a remake on a weirder level you can check out the anime series Samurai Seven, which tells the story in a much longer 26 episode anime format in a kind of Japanese feudal/futuristic setting with cyborg samurai and much more over the top action.

By: Curzon

Curzon — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 17:42:36 +0000

So glad you mentioned Fog of War. The Japan part of that film is only ten minutes long, but it’s one of the best moments in documentary film. We quickly dismiss any possibility that the bombing of Japan was anything but necessary—surely it saved US lives, that it had to be done to end the war, that it may have ultimately saved more Japanese lives in the end. Maybe. But it was a tragedy nonetheless.